Tock, the ticketing system that launched in the US last year, is coming to the UK next month. It protects restaurants from no-shows – but will diners really pre-pay for restaurants as they do for the theatre, gigs and sporting events?
Anyone who has ever made a reservation at a restaurant, then, for no good reason, failed to show up – it’s you we have to blame for the latest development in the restaurant world. The ticketing system Tock – where pay for your dinner when you book the table, in the same way that you pay upfront for a sporting event, theatre or gig – launched in the US at the end of last year. It is the brainchild of Nick Kokonas, the co-owner of Alinea, Chicago’s “fun, emotional and provocative” (and, of course, hugely expensive) modernist restaurant. I wondered at the time whether it would ever find traction on British shores. And lo: the Clove Club in Shoreditch, east London, has just announced that next month it will be the first restaurant in the UK to adopt it for its £65 and £95 tasting menus.
I completely understand why restaurants would turn to Tock. In a business where margins can be squeaky-tight, the loss of a few tables every week to no-shows or what the biz calls “short-seating” – the practice of booking a table for a larger group than turns up – can mean the difference between profit and breaking even. I have spoken to restaurateurs who have bemoaned evenings when, of the 32 tables booked, only four have shown up.
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